rts, as well as
exports, should be only two per cent. _ad valorem_. A house was
offered to be built for me, according to any plan I might choose to
suggest, free of expense. The people were desirous of having a
commercial establishment in their country, and would have done any
thing to accomplish this object. The extensive connections which I
had throughout Suse, Sahara, and even at Timbuctoo, would have
facilitated my operations; but my connections in England were not
such as to enable me to engage advantageously in this enterprise, I
was obliged, therefore, though reluctantly, to decline it,
145 although, if otherwise situated, I might have realised an
independent fortune in two or three years at Tomie, besides having
a most favourable opportunity of opening a trade with Timbuctoo,
and other territories of Sudan.

I now felt a strong inclination to visit the port of Messa, which
was reported to have been about two centuries before, a
considerable port of trade, and the capital of Suse, when that
country was a separate kingdom, and the state-prisoners were
banished to Sejin-messa[120], (commonly called Segelmessa in the
maps;) as the state prisoners of Marocco have been from time
immemorial, and are to this day sent to Tafilelt, which territory
lies contiguous to, and west of Sejin-messa. We started for Messa
in the morning, and reached the town in the afternoon. Delemy sent
a strong guard with me for protection, with an injunction to his
friend the _fakeer_ of Messa, to treat me as his friend and guest,
and to do whatever he could to gratify my curiosity in every
respect. The country about Messa is very picturesque, and
productive: the river also abounds with romantic scenery, it has a
sandbar at its entrance to the ocean, which is dry at low water;
but it was once navigable several miles up, as was reported to me.
On the south bank of the river, about two miles from the sea, is a
146 gold-mine, in the territory of a tribe hostile to Delemy, but the
influence of the Fakeer, who is held in reverential awe, enabled us
to examine it without danger. What they told us was the entrance,
was filled with immense large pieces of rock-stone; and I was
informed, that when the Christians left the place, (the Portuguese,
no doubt,) they placed these stones at th